Is AoE3 HD a possibility?

Is AoE3 HD a possibility?

From how much money upgrading a 1999 game to HD in 2013 Microsoft made, why not upgrade AoE3 and make even more money?

The idea is that the upgrade would upgrade AoE3 from the capabilities of decent computers in 2005 (my computer) to the capabilities of decent computers at its release date (say 2015).

The "HD"  in "AoE3 HD" is more of a concept than an actuality, as I have read on AoE3H that AoE3 does support up to full HD 1920x1080, but 64x64 textures are still 64x64 textures no matter what resolution is used, so the real solution to improve quality is to use models with more polygons and use higher resolution textures, like 256x256 textures for every small unit, 512x512 for small buildings and some IGC models, and 1024x1024 for large buildings and some IGC models.

For our purposes on this thread, let's assume that the capabilities of decent computers (including laptops) in 2015 are gaming in 1920x1080p with no lag.  So that is the reason for the multiplication of textures by 4.  Also it should include support for the next generation of gaming at even higher resolutions than 1920x1080, just as playing in 1920x1080 in 2005 seemed impossible without a ton of money.

The original 64x64 textures were designed to be compatible with the analog VGA output to a CRT at a resolution of 600x480.

There is thus a smallest unit texture to display resolution ratio of 64:480.

My above proposed texture increase on a 1920x1080 display for smallest units from 64x64 to 256x256 gives a ratio of 256x1080.

256/4=64

1080/4=270

The ratio is thus 64:270, however, WotTA has been successful at using 128x128 unit textures with no problems, so having double the ratio should cause no problems.

I have been successful at using IGC textures in game for multiple standard units for the American civ at 256x256 and I play at 1280x720p resolution on my laptop (the laptop is 1920x1080p display, but I used the 1280x720p setting in the in-game display setting menu) with out distorting the texture's appearance on the screen (the texture's appearance might be distorted playing on a 600x480 CRT), so no problems would occur at 1920x1080p settings.

The only problem, not mentioned because its so obvious, is the obvious replace texture bug. The "AoE3 HD" would have to accept 256x256 textures for all standard units without replace texture bug, so it would obviously need a new game engine.

AoE2HD was simply a re-release, there were no fundamental game changes, no sprites (isometricity, eh?) were changed apart from the ones used to display cliffs and fire, so the only real change was its ability to support resolutions greater than 1024x768.

Now, as you did mention, AoE3 already supports such resolutions, so there would be absolutely no reason to do an AoE2HD style re-release.


peugeot407

AoE 2 was a let down. It was like something majestic and when you get it you find that you just waited so long to play with better looking water XD

Does anyone know how to change the settings of AoE3 to 1920x1080p in the in game settings menu?



I'm not going to play the game at higher resolutions on my computer than 1280x720p because that gives me a small amount of lag with:

(1) V sync, (2) anti-alias, (3) shader, (4) reflections, and everything at max settings;

while running Windows Vista in (a) legacy UI mode (to reduce graphics usage on the Windows UI) and I (b) clear the RAM cache and (c) flush the DNS cache before starting the game and (d) close all other programs that can be closed.

If I don't do (a), (b), (c), and (d) then the lag at the 720p resolution with the full settings is unacceptable for gaming and is only suitable for screen shots testing textures in the scenario editor.

Last night I played a game with the Mexicans with several of the units using 128x128 textures while having naval battles with the full ship build limit of all ships while having land battles with artillery at the same time and the lag is not that much.

The lag is about half the fps it appears (depending on the activity in the game mentioned above), because instead of taking 30 seconds for the explosive cart to detonate if not used as its string description says it actually takes about 60 seconds to detonate if not used.

but half fps lag is not that much to me because I'm used to worse.
This is a laptop by the way.

It actually makes the game easier to play because you have more time to micro manage.

Sorry for my poor grammar.

Higher resolutions than 1280x720p I intend for screen shots.

The highest resolution it goes to in the settings is 1280x768.


My resolution numbers are probably wrong. I'm pretty sure my "1280x720p" setting doesn't exist and actually its something like 1024x720p.

V-Sync is completely pointless. There's absolutely no way of actually detecting the difference it's supposed to make, yet it does drain GPU resources, so I always switch it off immediately.


peugeot407

Hhm, well I read on Wikipedia that V sync is necessary when TV was invented so I use it anyway to be sure.


Next question: My laptop, when I play a YouTube video at 1920x1080p resolution, the average fps is around 14 fps with a maximum fps of 24 fps (rare) and the bit rate is variable from around 3500kbps to around 9500kbps with only a few seconds lag in queing. This info is from the "Stats for Nerds" feature on YouTube. At the time of that video test, I tested my internet connection speed to have a ping of 110ms at 10mbps download using the 4G network (the only thing faster than DSL in rural areas of the U.S.).

Is it the connection speed causing the low frame rate or is it my laptop's graphic performance causing the low frame rate?


The frame rate of 14fps is slightly better than playing WotTA in 1280x720p resolution with all settings to maximum (around same fps in AoE3 but occasional lag when select multiple units), since playback of video is less graphic intensive.

Connection issues never cause performance problems, simple as that. An overused internet connection may lengthen website loading times and have a similar effect on the buffering of videos, but it will never make your computer any slower.


peugeot407

Is it possible to upgrade old computers to handle HD graphics better by using a thumb drive as virtual RAM?

After reading this tutorial on WikiHow, I found I can go up to 4.5 Gbytes RAM total (currently now have 3.3 Gbytes RAM).

There was a digital-to-analog converter box for TV going analog-to-digital.

Maybe this here is our "converter box" for going from Standard Definition to High Definition on a old hardware?

The one way to improve graphics is to replace the graphics card with a better one. An extra amount of RAM will have negligible effects on graphics.

Honestly, Dieter, if you're that concerned with getting better graphics, go out and buy a desktop. You won't regret it...


peugeot407